Parchment paper or wax paper or baking paper can be used for so many different
cake decorating techniques for stunning and unique designs. Let's start with one of my favourites:
a buttercream transfer. This technique will let you replicate any design (even super complicated
ones) onto a cake. Choose an image you like online or on a notebook cover or wherever and
draw it or trace it onto parchment. You'll find it much easier to draw with pencil than with pen.
Tint buttercream the colours you want to use and buttercream is the best kind of frosting for this
particular method because it gets so firm when it sets, which you'll see in action in a minute.
Put each colour into a piping bag with a small round piping tip or you can just put your
buttercream in a ziploc bag and cut the corner off for a homemade piping bag! Outline and fill each
coloured section of the design except the biggest section. Freeze the design on the parchment for
five minutes to set it and then pipe on the final colour and spread it over the whole design so that
it's flat and also to create a sticky surface on top of the parts of the design that have set.
Lift the parchment up straight away and press it against a cake and the frosting on the cake
should have set so that that frosting is firm too and then you won't damage it. Put the whole cake
in the fridge for 30 minutes or the freezer for 15 minutes and then peel the parchment off and voila!
Another great use for parchment paper or wax paper or baking paper is for piping details
that you can't pipe directly onto a cake and then transferring them onto the cake. Cut your
parchment into little squares and attach one to a flower nail with a dot of buttercream.
I'll show you another option if you don't have a flower nail in a minute. Pipe your detail onto
the parchment and for these flowers I'm squeezing out the buttercream as I twist the nail between my
thumb and finger to pipe petals. I'll pipe the middle later. Slide the parchment off the nail
and onto a plate and put that in the freezer for five minutes to set. If you don't have a flower
nail you can pipe directly onto parchment paper like this, turning the parchment around as you
pipe to find the easiest angle for each part of the flower or pumpkin or whatever you're piping.
Put the parchment into the freezer for five minutes to set the buttercream and then peel
the buttercream off the parchment and to attach it you can either pipe some buttercream onto the
bottom and press it onto the cake or pipe some buttercream onto the cake wherever you want
to put the flower and then press the flower into that dot. The frozen flower or pumpkin or whatever
will chill and set the dot of buttercream quickly and that dot will act as glue to hold the flower
in place on the side or the top of the cake. It's useful to pipe the centers of flowers now at the
end so that before this you can push against the middle of the flower to attach it to the cake
without damaging anything. Parchment will give you neat sprinkle borders by covering up the cake
where you don't want the sprinkles to go and this way you'll have an even band of sprinkles with a
straight top edge because the sprinkles will only attach to the frosting below the parchment paper.
The frosting on the cake needs to have set before doing this so chill your cake for at least an
hour in the fridge first. A tray is useful for catching falling sprinkles so that they don't go
everywhere. Parchment is a cheap way to make absolutely any stencil design you like
by cutting a shape or design out of the parchment. If your parchment came on a roll it will curve and
that's ideal because when you wrap it around the cake it will do most of the work for you. Pull it
tight and press the ends of the parchment against the cake to keep the stencil flat and then spread
buttercream over it, being gentle so you don't push the buttercream underneath the parchment.
The frosting on the cake needs to have set before you wrap the stencil around it so chill the cake
in the fridge for an hour first. Scrape off the excess buttercream with your offset spatula or a
cake comb and then peel the parchment off and ta-daa! For a bit more bling follow the same
steps with a fun addition at the end. Cut your shape out of parchment, wrap it around the cake,
spread buttercream over it, scrape off the excess, peel the stencil off and then press sprinkles into
the buttercream on the stencil. The sprinkles will attach easily since the frosting within the
stencil is soft and sticky but they won't stick to the frosting on the cake because that has already
set. You can press the sprinkles in before peeling off the stencil but I find that the edges of the
design are neater this way. You can brush off any unwanted sprinkles with a paintbrush to tidy
things up. With parchment you can create patterns on a cake using a sponge painting technique.
Just cut the parchment into strips or circles or whatever shapes you want and these will be
the colour of the frosting on the cake. If you chill your cake first, when you take it
out of the fridge some tiny drops of condensation will form which will attach the parchment to it
or you can use a pin to secure the parchment if you prefer. Tint buttercream or any other frosting
to make paint and you'll need to add milk or cream to buttercream to thin it out a bit to be able to
use it for this. Dip a sponge into your paint and then dab it over the exposed parts of the
cake and when you peel the parchment off you'll have a colourful, slightly textured pattern.
I hope you've seen some ideas you'd like to try. Tell me in the comments which is your favourite
and check out my cake school for hundreds of cake decorating techniques and you can take individual
courses or join my ClubPLUS to access to all of my MiniCourses, MasterCourses and Live Workshops. The
link is up here in the top of the screen or go to www.britishgallbakes.com Thank you for watching!